{"id":3737,"date":"2018-01-19T11:20:11","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T11:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-195849-4032129.cloudwaysapps.com\/michigan-drivers-license-restoration-and-your-drug-use-history\/"},"modified":"2024-02-19T21:00:50","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T02:00:50","slug":"michigan-drivers-license-restoration-drug-use-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.randalawyers.com\/blog\/michigan-drivers-license-restoration-drug-use-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan Driver’s License Restoration and your drug use History"},"content":{"rendered":"

This will be the third and final installment in a recent, non-sequential group of articles about the role of drugs in Michigan driver\u2019s license restoration<\/a> and clearance<\/a> cases. In the first piece, we looked at how the use of certain, \u201crisky\u201d medications can imperil a license appeal, while in the second<\/a>, we saw that the use of medical marijuana, with very limited exceptions, will completely\u00a0derail it<\/a>. In this final piece, I want to focus on the non-medical, recreational use of drugs. The first and, I\u2019d hope, most obvious difference is that whereas with medical marijuana, and, for the most part, medication, the focus of inquiry here is more on past use, because it should be clear that anyone who currently uses recreational drugs is a million galaxies from being anywhere near eligible<\/a> to win a license appeal. Thus, in this examination, we look backwards, into the past.<\/p>\n

\"\"When a client comes in for his or her first, 3-hour meeting<\/a>, we elicit the information necessary to complete all the forms required by the Michigan Secretary of State\u2019s Administrative Hearing Section<\/a> (AHS), the body whose hearing officers<\/a> actually decide license cases. One of those forms requests very specific information about a person\u2019s lifetime drug use history, so we\u2019ll spend the time to cover that section thoroughly. That sounds pretty easy and straightforward, but decades of experience have taught us that people can easily either forget to list, on that form, some substances they\u2019ve tried (even if only once or twice), and then remember them at the hearing<\/a>, when asked, or, conversely, list certain substances on the form, and then forget to include them in an answer at their hearing, neither of which situations adds to their credibility or is otherwise helpful.<\/p>\n

Now, if that was all there was to this, we could just end the article right here and say, \u201cremember, don\u2019t leave anything out!\u201d Although omissions about past drug use are easily made, and most often not done with any intent to deceive, they always complicate things and can very often spell the quick end of a license restoration<\/a> or clearance case. Yet there\u2019s way more to this than just making sure the lawyer<\/a> lists all of the drugs a person has tried on the appropriate form and that the person\u2019s testimony is consistent with that. All prior drug use must also be disclosed to the evaluator<\/a>, who must properly diagnose the same within the substance use evaluation<\/a>, as well. It would be easy to caution someone to \u201cjust be honest,\u201d but otherwise honest people often make honest mistakes, or honestly forget things, so when it comes to drugs, a person needs to be both honest and<\/strong> thorough.<\/p>\n

Most evaluators don\u2019t understand this very well, if at all. To be fair, this specificity the AHS wants regarding this information isn\u2019t obvious from looking at the substance use evaluation form<\/a> itself, and most lawyers, especially those who only dabble in license appeals, won\u2019t ever learn the subtleties of all this unless they do so the hard way. This can get rather deep, but when someone is diagnosed with an alcohol use disorder, or, in the case of the out-dated form still being used by the state,\u00a0 either alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence, and he or she is also diagnosed for a disorder involving the use\/abuse of another substance, that becomes what\u2019s known as a poly-substance diagnosis. The short version takeaway is that this is can become a\u00a0 kind of Pandora\u2019s box, but is otherwise easily managed if it is handled correctly.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, it is the lawyer\u2019s job to make sure all this does get handled correctly. The default tendency of most lawyers is to leave getting the client\u2019s drug use history to the evaluator, because, after all, \u201cevaluating\u201d is his or her expertise, right? The problem is that most substance abuse counselors, whatever experience they may have had \u201cdoing\u201d evaluations, receive very little relevant, real-time feedback about their work, so they don\u2019t have any real idea of the level of disclosure the state wants. Beyond having had tons and tons of in-depth discussions about the license appeal process, I have taken my evaluator to multiple license appeal hearings, as well. My evaluator is a partner in what I do, not just someone who provides a service. We generally communicate at least 3 or 4 times a week, and most often about ongoing cases. We rely upon each other to provide specific information we both need. A person may want to ask any potential evaluator how many license appeal hearings he or she has attended before plunking down any money.<\/p>\n

From my end, I rely upon my post-graduate education in addiction studies in order to understand both the broader implications of poly-substance use, and any diagnosis related to it, as well as how that can and will affect our case. To make sure the evaluator is provided with the necessary information, I have developed a form of my own, called a \u201csubstance abuse evaluation checklist\u201d that I fill out, line-by-line, with each client before he or she goes and has the evaluation completed. An important part of properly completing my form requires going over a person\u2019s drug use history in detail so that, as I referenced above, I\u2019m working as a partner with, and not really separate from, my evaluator.<\/p>\n

Often enough, when I begin exploring my clients substance use history, I\u2019ll learn how a person may have, in the past, traded one substance for another, had a clear drug of choice (not always alcohol, either) and\/or how the use of one substance would trigger the use of another. Again, this gets deep, but it\u2019s part of the reason my meeting with a new client takes at least 3 hours, and that, in turn, is part of the reason why I guarantee to win<\/a> every license appeal case I take. The larger point here is that this goes way beyond just cataloging a person\u2019s prior drug use, although I can\u2019t repeat enough that if any of that prior use turns out to not have been disclosed or properly evaluated, once the hearing officer gets to it, that\u2019s pretty much the end of this year\u2019s license appeal.<\/p>\n

In some cases, the stories of some people\u2019s drug use can be long, and figure prominently into their ultimate recovery story. In other cases, however, it can be as simple as a person having tried marijuana a few times back in high school, or not even at all. Whatever role the use of any drugs did play in a person\u2019s past, it must be properly explored, disclosed and diagnosed. This includes how the use of drugs influenced a person\u2019s drinking habits, because often enough, if such prior use took place with any regularity, it is common to see that it either exacerbated or diminished a person\u2019s consumption of alcohol. That interplay, if any, is important. As I noted before, if it was just as simple as not forgetting to list what drugs you\u2019ve tried, then this article could have been reduced to about that one sentence.<\/p>\n

In the final analysis, the proper analysis of prior drug use isn\u2019t just important in a license appeal, it\u2019s absolutely critical. For those people who have never ingested even a puff of marijuana, well, then there\u2019s nothing to really worry about. Everyone else needs to make sure their prior drug use is carefully explored and analyzed. Beyond one\u2019s admitted drug use, of course, the state is going to be looking at whether or not anything drug related has ever gone on a person\u2019s criminal or driving record. Not that long ago, I had (and won) a case wherein a client convicted of possession of cocaine admitted to selling, but not using it. This really isn\u2019t the kind of stuff you want to just “wing.”<\/p>\n

If you have lost your license and either need it restored, or need Michigan\u2019s hold cleared from your driving record, I guarantee<\/a> to do that in every case I take. The key requirement is that you have honestly quit drinking (and, of course, using drugs). If you\u2019re looking to hire a lawyer, do your homework, read around, then check around, and call my office<\/a>. We\u2019re in Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. (EST), and can be reached at 586-465-1980. We\u2019re here to help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This will be the third and final installment in a recent, non-sequential group of articles about the role of drugs in Michigan driver\u2019s license restoration and clearance cases. In the first piece, we looked at how the use of certain, \u201crisky\u201d medications can imperil a license appeal, while in the second, we saw that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-driver-s-license-restoration"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.randalawyers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.randalawyers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.randalawyers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.randalawyers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.randalawyers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.randalawyers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.randalawyers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.randalawyers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.randalawyers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.randalawyers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}